


Run-in

by kitchournas



Category: SKAM (Italy)
Genre: Episode 2.05, Eva is suspicious, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I just need all my faves to interact I guess, It's Eva and mama Rametta talking, but she stays in her lane, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 16:10:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17646068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitchournas/pseuds/kitchournas
Summary: Eva is just trying to survive a long weekend of awkward dinners when she runs into Martino's mother.





	Run-in

**Author's Note:**

> When I wrote _[Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17123591)_ , I decided that Eva and Mama Rametta knew each other and I’ve basically been thinking about it since. And if nobody is going to write that weirdly specific niche fic you kinda want to read, sometimes you just have to do it.

_Friday, November 2nd, 13:52_

 

With a sigh of annoyance, Eva shifts the bouquet she is holding to get a better look at her phone. The texts are coming in the girls’ group chat faster that she can reply while holding a massive arrangement of unseasonal flowers that her mom had sent her for out of guilt at having forgotten her own sister-in-law’s birthday. None of this was Eva’s fault and she shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences for her mom being too busy to remember what day it was. She should be able to text her friends about the girls’ night she had missed last night because she had been forced to attend dinner with old family friends, the first dinner of many that her mother had managed to squeeze into the long weekend to make up for all the events she had missed whenever she was travelling. So instead of being with her friends, she had had to sit and listen to boring conversations she didn’t care about, reminiscences and questionable political opinions while discreetly scrolling through everything she was missing.

She adjusts the bouquet again and almost drops her phone as she walks straight into somebody, as was bound to happen. She looks up, ready to profusely apologize only to find Martino’s mother also looking up from the bag she has dropped on the ground.

“Oh, hi, Eva!” She doesn’t seem angry or annoyed, just surprised to see her, and somehow that makes Eva feel even more guilty. She glances around to find that she is one street over from where Martino and his mom live and that she really should pay more attention to her surroundings.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you. Are you okay?”

Ilaria looks down at her spilled groceries and smiles.

“Thankfully, it wasn’t anything breakable, so it should be fine.”

“I’m really sorry,” Eva repeats, trying to pick up a can on the sidewalk while still holding the flowers and her phone, which proves definitely too complicated and hazardous, no matter how bad she feels for literally bumping into somebody who has only ever been nice to her. Seeing her attempts to help, Ilaria lifts a hand to stop her.

“No, don’t worry about it, you look like you have your arms full already.”

She points at the flowers with a little laugh and the joke draws a smile out of Eva while simultaneously making her want to roll her eyes a little, the way only parent jokes can.

She manages to slip her phone into her jacket, leaving the texts for when she can actually read them without being a danger to everybody around her. As Ilaria is picking up her bag and making sure its contents are all intact, Eva remembers Gio telling her about Marti’s dad leaving last spring, and the way Martino himself would talk about his mother sometimes.

Eva has only met Ilaria a couple of times when she came to meet Giovanni at Martino’s and once when Martino had been sick and she had brought him her notes. She had always seemed happy to see her, had asked her about school, about what she liked and her plans for the future, like grown-ups tended to do, except that she had seemed genuinely interested and encouraging. She had even occasionally commiserated with Eva when she had been forced to wait until Gio and Marti had to finish one last game because there was a tie and ending on a tie was somehow worse than keeping her waiting.

“How’s school?”

Eva is drawn out of her thoughts to find Ilaria has picked up her groceries and is now looking at her expectantly. Eva tries not to think of her latest grade in history or the math homework that she will have to tackle at some point in the next two days. So she smiles and gives the only possible answer to that question.

“Oh, it’s fine.”

“What about the radio? You’re a part of that, too, right?”

“I am. A friend of mine thought that we should bring it back and I guess it’s been pretty fun.”

Eva would love to hear what Martino could possibly have had to say about the radio, given that he disappeared five minutes into the first meeting and since then, has never contributed anything but the talks she knows Sana has somehow coerced him into writing with her.

“I don’t know how many people actually listen to it, but at least we can say we tried. And we’ve still learned a lot of things, even if we’re probably the only ones.”

“I think I would have liked to do something like that when I was in school. Maybe not the recording itself, but at least the research and writing the scripts.”

“There wasn’t a radio in your school?”

“Oh no, nothing so fancy. And anyway, I already had practice every other day and matches every weekend, so I’m not sure I would have had much time for it.”

“Really? What did you play?”

“Tennis. I wasn’t bad when I was in college. Maybe I should have kept playing more regularly. It’s been… over fifteen years, I think. I do miss it sometimes.”

She looks a little wistful and Eva doesn’t quite know what to answer. Thankfully, as she shifts the bouquet again so it doesn’t press into her hip quite as much, Ilaria’s eyes follow the movement.

“These are lovely flowers.”

“Oh, thank you. My uncle’s family is coming to visit and it’s my aunt’s birthday today.”

“That’s nice. Are they staying for the long weekend?”

“Just until tomorrow. But my cousins are coming over on Saturday, so we’re having a full house basically until Sunday.”

Ilaria nods in understanding, maybe even a little bit of sympathy.

“And do you have any plans this weekend?” Eva asks, not wanting to dwell on the thought that having people over always tended to stress out her mother, which stressed out her father, which made for a lot of pent-up tension within the flat.

Ilaria shrugs.

“No, not really. My sister was supposed to come stay for a couple of days, but her kids got sick, so she’s staying home instead.”

She raises her bag a little before she adds,

“But I think I’m going to make a nice dinner for Marti and me when he comes home from Gio’s.”

That gives Eva pause.

“From Gio’s?”

“Yes, Gio said they were together. They were at a party yesterday so he stayed over. You weren’t there?”

Eva takes a second to reply, because she had seen the photos from Luca’s birthday the previous night while trying to distract herself from discussions about the rights of refugees, and she was pretty sure Martino was nowhere to be seen in them. Just like he had been nowhere to be seen at the Halloween party, where Emma and Maddalena had arrived late, looking angry and refusing to explain why. But lately, Martino seems to have been saying a lot of things that don’t add up, and if his mother has no idea, she is not going to be the one to tell her.

“No, I wasn’t. Gio and I aren’t together anymore.”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry,” Ilaria replies, tilting her head in sympathy, looking genuinely sorry for her, as if Eva's break-up with her high school boyfriend was somehow comparable to her husband of two decades leaving her out of the blue.

“It’s okay. It’s been a few months now, and it’s probably for the better.”

“That explains why I haven’t seen you around lately.”

Eva is saved from answering that by a voice coming from behind her.

“Eva?”

She turns around to find Martino frowning, looking warily between her and his mom.

“Hi, Marti.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was just walking past and I met your mom.”

Martino is still looking suspicious and Eva wonders where he could be coming from and why he seems so intent on nobody finding out. But as much as she would like to talk to him and understand, Martino has been clearly avoiding her for almost a month, so whatever is going on with him is probably not her problem anymore.

“So how was your party?” Ilaria asks, trying to get a smile out of her son.

Martino glances quickly at Eva before he answers, looking somewhere between his mother and the ground.

“It was fine.”

The situation is threatening to turn tense and awkward very quickly and Eva has her own potential tension waiting for her at home, so she has no desire to stick around.

“Actually, I should get going. Those flowers are getting really heavy. Have a good weekend, Ilaria.”

She looks at Martino straight in the eye, hoping to convey that she is not going to say anything, that she is not going to ask questions or tell his mother he was lying. It’s a lot for one look, but she hopes that he gets at least some of it. He squirms a little under her scrutiny, so he probably does.

“Bye, Marti.”

**Author's Note:**

> (Low-key there might be more at some point because I love having all my favorite redheads together.)


End file.
